DOCTOR PINTER
IN
THE MYTHOLOGY ISLES

When he awoke it was early evening. He freshened himself and set out, giving the address to an automatic taxi.

Felicity's home, on Ishtar Boulevard, turned out to be a spacious villa having almost the dimensions of a mansion. An inconspicuous plaque announced it to be the property of Intelligent Molecular Industries. At the portico he looked for a microphone or call signaller, but found none. The sliding door, however, was withdrawn, inviting entry.

Taking his courage in both hands, he stepped into an airy entrance hall. He looked with fascination at the tastefully erotic statuary adorning the lobby, trying to assimilate it into his knowledge of Felicity's personality. The house was silent. Perhaps she was not at home. He called out her name twice, but got no reply. He opened two doors, one to the right, one to the left, and discovered padded and cushioned lounges, made bright with displays of cut flowers.

Now that he was in it, he was reluctant to leave this hearth of her existence. A sweeping curved stairway led to the upper floor. He took it, to find himself in a corridor with four doors.

"Felicity?" he called out softly. "Felicity?"

A sound came from behind one of the doors. It was a shifting noise, accompanied by a faint murmur resembling her voice.

Made impetuous by the thought that she was near, Doctor Pinter opened the door and stood on the threshold.

He looked into a lace-curtained boudoir. Felicity was naked and lay on a great wide bed. All her weight was being borne by her shoulders. The rest of her body was raised up by the naked man looming over her, her legs pressed back by his shoulders, her feet hovering above her as though she would plant them on the ceiling. On that ceiling was fixed a mirror, in which Pinter gained an alternative view of the proceedings. He saw that even in the throes of copulation her face, though suffused with pleasure, had not lost that dignity and self-possession which was her central endearing quality. In the same mirror, Felicity saw him. Her eyes flicked towards him in a neutral passing glance, then turned away.

Her partner who drove so vigorously down into her must also have been aware of Pinter's presence, and seemed equally unconcerned. It was not the man who had gone into the restaurant with her earlier. This was no tourist. This was a muscled Adonis, an Odysseus, an Apollo, blond and blue-eyed. His face was god-like, and spoke of supreme courage and intelligence. Such a magnificent male, Pinter realized, could only be another of Intelligent Molecular's genetically engineered heroes, visiting from one of the other islands. Felicity grasped her hero lover's powerful biceps and added her thrusts to his. The rhythm to which they moved seemed to Pinter to be the rhythm of Great Nature herself.

Never in his life had he felt so utterly small and insignificant. The pair no more cared that he witnessed their coupling than if he had been an insect clinging to the wall. For long moments he stood transfixed, listening to perhaps a dozen of their deliberate, noisily slick pelvic thrusts.

Then, feeling that he might be about to faint, Doctor Pinter fled.

Next morning, haggard from distress and lack of sleep, Pinter left the hotel. He sent his luggage ahead and walked the distance to the wharf, carrying the sample case which he would not entrust to anyone else.

On the quay, while he waited to embark, he was surprised to see Girish Catheny again. The IMI employee approached slowly, cautiously, with some awkwardness.

"Er... Doctor Pinter. I thought I might find you here. I wanted to... wish you farewell."

Pinter gazed at him coldly, uncomfortably aware that Catheny could see the dark shadows under his eyes.

"I do hope you will see a physician, Doctor," Catheny said sympathetically. "As you said yourself, there are medicines for love-sickness."

"Are there really."

Pinter's stare was unblinking. His tone was clipped. "Were I to redesign the human species, sir, I would eliminate sexual involvement from the process of reproduction altogether. That, in my opinion, is the way to a better human race."

"Wise words," Catheny replied sadly. "Wise indeed."

Neither said anything further. Catheny acceded to Pinter's evident wish to be rid of him. He turned and walked away, with a plodding, dispirited step.

Pinter mounted the ramp to the waiting hydrofoil. Once he was under the deck's plexiglass cover, he felt a panicky sense of nostalgia and longing for what he was leaving behind. He suppressed it with determination. The hydrofoil swung away from the wharf, moving into the lagoon. Picking up speed, it rose on its foils and went racing for the reef.

Doctor Pinter stood on the aft deck, watching Felicity Island recede. Spray flecked the glass like tears, reminding him that last night he had wept for the first time since he was a child. The hydrofoil swayed, the water becoming turbulent as pink coral approached. Suddenly his self-control, which he had maintained with difficulty since the first light of dawn, snapped. He beat his fists on the plexiglass, staring longingly towards the island, and called out in a strangled voice.

"Felicity! My darling! I will return! I will return!"

The hydrofoil lurched violently. For a moment it looked as though the pilot had made a fatal error and the vessel was about to wreck itself on the lips of a large pink and crimson crevasse. Then, with a surge of extra power, it veered skilfully aside. The pilot pulled it away from the looming danger. Soon they had gained the safety of the open sea.